Improved refrigerating-vessel



.UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEOPOLD KLEE AND ANDREW PATTERSON, OF PITTSBURG, PA.

IMPROVED REFRIGERATINGVESSEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 103,473, dated May 24,1870.

We, LEOPOLD KLEE and ANDREW PAT- TERsON, of the city of Pittsburg,county of Allegheny, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certainImprovements in Refrigerating-Vessels, of which the following is aspeciication:

Nature ami Object of om* Invention.

The purpose of our invention is to produce a convenient and efficienthousehold utensil that will secure the refrigerating effect of surfaceevapora-tion.

It is a well-known fact that if a porous vessel, being closed tocurrents of air, is kept moistened or wetted, and is exposed in asituation favoring evaporation, a very considerable reduction oftemperature takes place within such vessel, and as a practicalapplication of this physical phenomenon it has been proposed to use anordinary earthen iiower-pot or other similar vessel inverted over asuitable disk, the hole in the upturned bottom of said pot being closedand its outside surface moistened occasionally with water, &c. Thisextemporized refrigerator fully recognizes the main principles involvedin our invention 5 but our improvement, because of its peculiarconstruction, is a much more convenient and eflicient utensil, and ingiving it this peculiar con.- struction consists our invention.

A Description.

Our refrigerating-vessel consists of two parts-first, a foot or disk, A,and second, a cover, B, Figure 2. The former is constructed of anyconvenient size and material, with an inner chamber, O, and an annularchamber, D, surrounding it, and divided from each other by the wall F.The second part of the cover B consists of a vessel made of any suitablematerial having an absorbent surface, (preferably porous clay,) ofsuitable capacity and of such relative size as will always iit looselyin the annular chamberD of the lower vessel, A. The outer surface ofsaid cover is ribbed, corrugated, or otherwise made so as to present alarger surface than if plain, thus giving an increased evaporating area,and consequently a greater degree of refrigeration.

Being thus constructed, our refrigeratingvessel is vused as follows: Inthe inner chamber, O, Fig. 2, are placed the substances-as but-ter,meats, fruits, &c.-to which the refrigeration is to be applied, thecover B is set on, and water is supplied to the reservoir G, through thesid es of which it percolates, thus keeping the surface of the coversaturated with moisture, and refrigeration will take place on thewell-known principle previously referred to. The annular chamber D,serving as a receptacle for that portion of Water which does notevaporate in its passage down the sides of the cover, serves also thepurpose ot hermeticall y closing with the said surplus water the innerchamber, C; and, finally, should the water-supply in the upperreservoir, G, be eX- hausted, the water insaid chamber D will be carriedup again by capillary action through the porous substance of the cover,and thus supply the needed moisture for an uninterrupted evaporation.

To prevent the water from filtering from the reservoir Gr direct downupon the substances in the inner chamber, O, We make the inside of thecover impervious by a suitable glazing.

The rim E of dish A should be of a lower level than the wall F, so thatany accidental surplus of water in annular chamber D will not enter theinner chamber, C, to the damage of its contents. Y

Claim.

We claim as our invention- A new article of manufacture consisting ofthe dish A, having the inner chamber, O, and annular chamber D, with theinner wall, F, in combination with the cover B provided with reservoirG, as and for the purpose specified.

LEOPOLD KLEE. ANDREW PATTERSON.

Vitnesses:

A. S. NICHOLSON, R. S. GORYELL.'

